In some wireless communication networks, communication may be performed during beacon intervals (BI), which may be scheduled, for example, according to a beacon and/or an announcement frame.
A beacon interval may be divided, for example, into a plurality of access periods. Different access periods within the BI may have different access rules.
For example, the beacon interval may include at least one access period, e.g., a Data Transfer Time (DTT), which may be allocated for frame exchanges between a plurality of wireless communication devices, e.g., stations (STAs).
The DTT may include one or more contention-based access periods (CBAPs) and/or one or more service periods (SPs). During the CBAP stations may be allowed to communicate using a suitable contention-based mechanism, for example, an Enhanced distributed channel access (EDCA) mechanism.